Lawsuit challenges failure to handle NICS appeals

Posted by David Hardy · 5 June 2018 09:21 PM

Right here. Background: under the NICS "instant check" for firearms purchases, there are a LOT of incorrect denials. Record-keeping of criminal convictions was until recently quite sloppy (police felt their job was done when an arrest was made, whatever the outcome, and courts felt that they kept records of individual cases, compiling a full list of everyone actually convicted or making sure each defendant was correctly identified was not their duty). So there are a lot of incorrect denials, and the FBI stopped processing appeals from them in 2016, stating they didn't have the resources.

Those who were incorrectly denied had the right to sue and in theory the right to recover attorney's fees. But the Supreme Court has ruled that, unless Congress creates an exception, fees can only be recovered if FBI is actually ordered to change the records. If it instead reacts to the filing of a suit by changing the record, before a court orders it to do so, no fees. So a person incorrectly denied the right to purchase a gun is out of pocket thousands of dollars in order to correct the mistake. I hope this suit will end that.